Luca's Bad Girl - By Amy Andrews Page 0,45

there would be no changing her mind. It shouldn’t have mattered. He’d done this dozens of times with dozens of women. Had had a good time for a while then walked away without looking back.

No harm, no foul.

Except it did matter. Somehow these past weeks with Mia had come to mean more than a sexual pressure valve.

Mia mattered.

CHAPTER NINE

TWENTY minutes later Mia and Luca were sitting opposite each other strapped into the rescue helicopter, watching the rooftop helipad lights bend and twist as they refracted through the raindrops clinging to the chopper’s windows. Luca had volunteered to go with her due to the shortage of nurses in the department and the ICU retrieval team also being out on a call.

‘Okay, folks, welcome to Brian Air. Please ensure your tray tables are in an upright position and your seat belts are fastened low and tight. It’s going to be an interesting ride.’

Mia grinned at the amplified patter in her earphones despite the tension she felt at sitting opposite a man she’d been mere minutes away from feeling deep inside her. Brian was one of the pilots who had been flying rescue choppers for ever and his skill and experience were much appreciated on a stormy night.

Even his sense of humour.

‘Please don’t tell me we’re heading into a storm, Brian.’

‘Would I do that to you, Mia, my lovely?’

Luca gritted his teeth at the easy banter. He had a sudden urge to break something of Brian’s. Something non-essential, of course. He still had to be able to fly the damn chopper.

‘There is some storm activity but I’ll be skirting around it. Safe as houses. Cross my heart. Would I lie to you?’

Mia laughed. ‘You? Never.’

Brian laughed back. ‘Got yourself a man yet?’

Mia’s smile died, her gaze locking with Luca’s. ‘I’m too busy for a man.’

Brian tsked into his headset. ‘Now, if only I was twenty years younger. What’s wrong with men these days, Luca? Are they blind?’

Mia tried to look away from him but Luca’s brooding gaze held her captive.

‘Not all of us,’ Luca murmured.

Mia pursed her lips. ‘You know me, Brian—don’t like to be tied down.’

Luca had no doubt the words were for his benefit and he switched off to the patter as he shifted his gaze from Mia to the now far-away lights of Sydney. The steady beat of the rotors above him echoed the thud of his heart beat as he tried to catalogue the swirl of alien feelings churning in his gut.

In less than two months Dr Mia McKenzie had taken over his life. And he wasn’t sure exactly when it had happened. All he knew for sure was that the thought of never being with her again was not one he relished.

She’d been the one he’d thought of while he’d been away. Not the air hostess in business class who’d slipped him her card. Not the many beautiful Sicilian women who had smiled at him with frank interest on the streets of Marsala. Not even Marissa, his brother’s wife, the woman he’d foolishly thought himself in love with all those years ago.

Mia. It had been Mia who he’d thought of. Mia he’d picked up the phone to ring after his brother had paid him a visit at his hotel and told him to go home. And then put down again. Mia who he’d credited as he’d talked to his grandmother standing by her fresh grave after the other mourners had left. Mia who had got him through a killer flight as he’d fantasised about their reunion.

He stole a glance at her as she flicked through the retrieval paperwork balanced on a clipboard on her lap. She was gorgeous even in a big yellow helmet that made her look as if she was trapped inside a giant insect eye and flight overalls that seemed two sizes too big for her.

He looked away again as the insanity of it all hit him. He’d always been able to walk away. Always. None of this made sense.

And none of it made him happy.

It was official—he was having a truly hellish week.

‘So the ambulance crew on scene have the patient stabilised and ready for transport,’ Mia said, conscious of his eyes on her and desperate to get back to a professional footing after their coitus interruptus.

Their patient had suspected spinal injuries requiring rapid air evacuation for maximum treatment success and that’s what she needed to focus on.

Luca nodded. ‘Should just be able to scoop and run.’

Mia hoped so. The rain had picked up